About CKAN

CKAN is a tool for making open data websites. (Think of a content management system like WordPress – but for data, instead of pages and blog posts.) It helps you manage and publish collections of data. It is used by national and local governments, research institutions, and other organizations who collect a lot of data.

Once your data is published, users can use its faceted search features to browse and find the data they need, and preview it using maps, graphs and tables – whether they are developers, journalists, researchers, NGOs, citizens, or even your own staff.

CKAN is open source software, with an active community of contributors who develop and maintain its core technology. CKAN is modified and extended by an even larger community of developers who contribute to a growing library of CKAN extensions.

The CKAN Association, via the Steering Group and Technical Team, oversee and manage CKAN on behalf of its broader community of users and contributors.

Technology

CKAN is built with Python on the backend and Javascript on the frontend, and uses The Pylons web framework and SQLAlchemy as its ORM. Its database engine is PostgreSQL and its search is powered by SOLR. It has a modular architecture that allows extensions to be developed to provide additional features such as harvesting or data upload.

CKAN uses its internal model to store metadata about the different records, and presents it on a web interface that allows users to browse and search this metadata. It also offers a powerful API that allows third-party applications and services to be built around it.